A blue-state coalition notified a federal court Thursday it will appeal the bombshell ruling that found Congress’ decision to tweak Obamacare in its tax bill made the rest of the program unconstitutional.
They said the ruling was akin to a “very wrong diagnosis,” so they’re taking the fight to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
U.S. District Court Judge Reed O’Connor, presiding in Texas, ruled Dec. 14 that Congress’ decision to gut the “individual mandate” tax for shirking insurance rendered the rest of the 2010 law invalid.
He granted a request from liberal state governments for a stay in his ruling, which if upheld would strike everything from Obamacare’s taxpayer-funded subsidies for private health plans to its expansion of Medicaid and provisions ordering insurers to cover people with pre-existing medical conditions.
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, who is leading the blue-state coalition, argues the mandate still exists, even if the penalty is zero, and can be severed from the rest of the Obamacare program anyway since Congress left those provisions alone when it passed its tax overhaul.
He said Judge O’Connor’s ruling was “erroneous, that it would be detrimental and it would dismantle the lives and health care of so many people in this country.”
Some experts say the argument from 20 Republican-led states who filed the suit is flimsy and likely will not survive higher-court scrutiny.
Yet Judge O’Connor said Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. was clear in 2012 when he said the law’s benefits and consumer protections ran in conjunction with the mandate.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced Thursday her chamber will vote Wednesday on a resolution that would allow House counsel to intervene in the case and defend Obamacare.
They see it as a way to put Republicans on record as supporting or opposing Obamacare’s protections for people with pre-existing conditions, which factored into the midterm elections.
“In November, the American people delivered a new Democratic House majority with a stern message for Washington: Republicans’ attacks on health care must end,” Mrs. Pelosi said.
Democrats also want to signal to the courts that Congress did not intend to upend the program when it zapped the individual mandate in the GOP tax bill.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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